L.A. Times Political Analysis

There have been a number of interesting political stories in the LA Times recently. A few days ago, they reported that voters still want to have their cake and eat it too: They don't want to raise taxes, but don't want to cut any services, either.

They also ran a story discussing the implications of changes to the redistricting and party primary process that California voters approved this year.

Today's LA Times reported on a public opinion survey (taken in multiple languages) reporting that larger percentages of Asians and Latinos are concerned about global warming, air pollution, and water and soil contamination than whites.

I could write a lot about all three of those issues. For today, I'll just comment on the first one: So what else is new?

Most voters don't have a lot of time to study politics, and so they don't. So if you ask them to give a rough estimate of what proportion of the state's budget goes to education or prisons or police and fire or welfare, you really can't be surprised when their guesses are wildly off the mark. Given that, is it any surprise when voters are then willing to heed the siren call of politicians who recite the old shibboleth, "waste, fraud and abuse," as their plan for eliminating the deficit.

I'll post short comments on the other two issues next week.